Expired film and some new perspectives

Hey there,

It's been a long time since we saw each other.

The pictures are from this summer. I originally wrote this text a while ago, but a move from our old apartment to a house here in Umeå got in the way. So. I just want to announce that I'm back today. I'm also back today after a rather disappointing day out. I had the concept clear, the ideas were ready, and the equipment was fully set up for a day out in fresh snow. The result was not a single exposed picture with my Linhof. But what the heck, that's how it is sometimes. Don't give up, Andreas.

So I feel it's time to share some thoughts. What's new? Well, I finally got myself a fridge.

Isn't a fridge something everyone has? someone might ask. And, yes, I'd guess most people have a fridge at home for dairy products and such, including myself. But what I have now, that I didn't have before, is a dedicated fridge for proper film storage. This is something that should have been done a long time ago, and I'm happy to say that this is now finally sorted.

I was thinking about the stock of fresh and old film I have. Sheet film, instant film (Polaroid type film) and a lot of expired medium format film (120 format). Also, several round metal containers with black and white Orwo 35 mm bulk film (30 m raw length) that expired in 1991. Now I wonder where my bulk film loader could be...

One thing that must be considered when shooting with expired film is that the sensitivity decreases over time. A rule of thumb is to add one stop of exposure per decade. So, in this case, when I wanted to test a batch of Kodak Ektacolor Gold II 160 Professional that expired in February 1996, I had to guess the new likely sensitivity of the film. A film that expired about 25 years ago should be compensated with at least plus 2.5 stops. And given that this is originally an ISO 160 film, it should now be exposed as if it were an ISO 25 - 32 film. However, I decided not to go that far and settled for plus 2 stops as a basic setting. So I set my light meter to ISO 40 and went from there. Good to have both "braces and a belt" sometimes.

In this case, there was also a handwritten warning on the original film packaging that was made several years ago that this batch was somewhat fogged. That warning was in turn made long after the film had expired. Thinking about it, I remembered that I got reasonably good exposures, but somewhat fogged negatives, with my Hasselblad at the time without compensating for the film's age. Maybe this type of film isn't as sensitive to aging as one might think. Anyway, that was the reason not to go all the way to plus 2.5 stops as a baseline.

It would be so nice if I could use my old stock in some of my ongoing projects. First, before I got my much talked about fridge, I thought my old stock was lost. But now, after seeing the results of my first test, I'm hopeful. Yes, the film is a little fogged, but considering it expired about 25 years ago, I have to say the result is good.

The more I thought about all my expired 120 film, the more inspired I felt to try it in panoramic photography. I wanted to use my 4x5" Linhof Master Technika. The only problem was that I didn't have a film holder for medium format film to use in my large format camera. A little detective work later, I tracked down a Sinar Panorama. It's a large format film holder that gives 6x12 cm negatives. Not for the faint of heart to load and use, but once everything is set up, it runs like clockwork.

I thought it might be fun to share some of the first test results with this configuration.

An expired (1996) roll of the discontinued Kodak Ektacolor Gold Professional next to the Sinar 6x12 film holder and manual.

My Linhof Master Technika with the Sinar Panorama 6x12 film holder mounted.

Ready to view the negatives on the light table.

Close-up of some of the exposed Kodak GPF negatives with a little light leakage on the film roll during the loading or unloading procedure.

Fogged negatives. But with exposure compensation, they still have enough dynamic range. My goal is to eventually make good scans.

A test scan with a flatbed scanner and some post-editing in Photoshop to get a feel for what can be done. The image shows a rock face on the edge of a clear-cut a few kilometers west of Junsele.